For the securing of a site of accident or a wrecked vehicle, the use of a so-called “reflective breakdown triangle” is known in order to secure the site of the accident and/or the parked vehicle and to draw the attention of other traffic participants to the accident occurrence or the (wrecked) vehicle and to warn them in order to prevent a new accident occurrence caused by following traffic. Usually, such known breakdown triangles comprise three bars of equal length which are fitted with a reflective surface to reflect the light from vehicles to create a visual warning. However, practice has shown that these known breakdown triangles have disadvantages. So, the visibility of a breakdown triangle which is visually conspicuous only because of the reflection of the light beam of a vehicle may only be given for the vehicle approaching the breakdown triangle when the brake path available for a safe deceleration of the vehicle in hand off the site of the accident is no longer sufficient. If the light of a vehicle is too faint or is cast onto the breakdown triangle at an angle that is not right, the warning effect may be accordingly insufficient. A further considerable reduction of the visibility of the breakdown triangle is given under poor weather conditions, such as heavy precipitation with rain or snow, fog, smoke development in the vicinity of the site of the accident, as well as at dawn or dusk and in the dark.
Such a breakdown triangle is described in DE 20 2004 013 522 U1, for example.
In order to eliminate these known disadvantages of a breakdown triangle, it was already suggested to equip a breakdown triangle with different active lighting units, like for example with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) which, alone or in combination with optical fibers, emit visual signals, cf. for example DE 20 2013 103 219 U1, DE 10 2010 025 607 A1 and AT 407 977 B.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,188 A, an x-shaped signal light is known, which is equipped with LEDs which are operated with batteries which are arranged inside the signal light. The signal light can be folded and is stored in an elongated covering when not used, whereby the covering can be used as a foot in the operating state of the signal light.
DE 10 2010 053 155 A1 discloses a breakdown triangle which is equipped with a transmitter which is designed to transmit a radio signal to a receiver. The receiver is arranged inside a vehicle and connected with a signal processing device which evaluates the signal transmitted by the breakdown triangle and reproduces it visually or acoustically.
From US 2005/0135092 A1, a breakdown triangle is known, which has flashing and non-flashing light sources, whereby the flashing light sources are arranged at the rear of the breakdown triangle and the non-flashing light sources at the front of the triangle.
FR 2 278 536 discloses a triangular safety cover for a breakdown triangle, which is fixed on the breakdown triangle with snap-fit connections.
Another known possibility for the warning of other traffic participants about an accident occurrence or a wrecked vehicle is the use of so-called “warning lights”. Such warning lights mostly comprise a housing for the placement of a light source and/or an electronic system controlling the light source, a parabolic reflector and a transparent disk which may in turn contain refractive elements in addition. The light discharge surface faces the arriving traffic participants in order to warn them through the action of light. Such warning lights, which are also used to secure construction sites in particular, have been state of the art for a long time (cf. for example: DE 195 22 420 A1). Even though such warning lights have been further developed over the course of time, they still have different shortcomings. In particular under poor conditions of visibility in the event of precipitation, i.e. rain or snow, smoke development, sand storm, snow storm, etc., they can be mistaken for brake lights, rear lights or flashing lights. In addition to that, the light elements may get damaged when the outer covering is broken, in particular when you take into consideration that such a warning light is transported in the trunk of a vehicle without being attached in a fixed place so that it can easily slip out of place, aside from the fact that when pieces of baggage are transported, these pieces of baggage can damage the warning light.
For the securing of an accident site or a wrecked vehicle, breakdown triangles and warning lights are always set up at a certain distance to the site to be secured according to legal regulations. However, practice has shown that this can have considerable negative effects. When a car breaks down in the city center, a breakdown triangle or a warning light sitting on the ground is already hidden by the vehicle directly following it so that the vehicles behind it no longer notice the breakdown triangle or the warning light and so are no longer informed about the accident or breakdown occurrence. In the event of accidents or breakdowns on through roads or highways, approaching vehicles—in particular trucks because of the elevated viewing angle—notice breakdown lights or breakdown triangles only when it is already too late and repeatedly “run them over” so that no warning effect is achieved any longer because they are destroyed in the process, and the risk for all traffic participants increases as a result.
Even though motor vehicles themselves are constantly being further developed with a view to the improvement of their active and passive safety systems, it is not possible to prevent accidents completely. In order to mitigate the consequences of such accidents, it is crucial that rescue forces are directly informed about the occurrence as well as the precise site of the accident in order to ensure technical and medical assistance as quickly as possible. The use of an emergency call system, with devices installed in vehicles which have a device receiving locating signals from satellites for the determination of the position of the vehicle, and a transmitter device for the transmission of information comprising the vehicle position to receivers, is advantageous here. Such information systems have become known under the description “eCall”. eCall (short form for “emergency call”) is an automatic emergency call system the installation of which in all new car models and certain utility vehicles is obligatory from 31 Mar. 2018 onwards. When there is an accident, a crash sensor makes an automatic emergency call. It also comprises the exact GPS position data of the vehicle so that rescue forces can take action in an optimum way because they know precisely where the accident site is. A disadvantage of this technology is that it will only be available as standard from 2018 onwards for future new cars and consequently the large number of today's vehicle owners have no direct access to this rescue device which is very necessary indeed.
In the light of the disadvantages described of breakdown triangles, signal lights and automatic emergency call systems, a solution has been searched for after long investigations, after numerous tests and continuous improvements for that reason. For example, PCT/AT2006/000379 proposed the integration of a visual warning element into a fuel canister—hereinafter referred to as canister for short. There, it was proposed that the warning element forms a separate body which is fixed in a recess or beading in one of the walls of the canister. Thus, the canister body surrounding the recess assumes a protective function for the visual warning element. However, practice has shown that this arrangement of a wall element inside a canister cannot deliver a flawless result.
Now, it is the objective of the invention to create a mobile warning device in the form of a signal light which ideally combines the advantages of a breakdown triangle, a warning light and an emergency call system. Specifically, it is the objective of the invention to create a signal light which, because of its special shape, is already a warning symbol whose light fixture is particularly protected, which can be installed using an adapter system in different positions elevated with respect to traffic, which preferably can, e.g. by means of GPS, determine the respective own geographic position and transmit messages to recipients of information by means of GSM/GPRS/HSPA standard and receive messages from transmitters of information. In addition to that, the aim is that the signal light can be controlled based on the Bluetooth standard by means of a separate remote control or a so-called “app” via a mobile phone.